Crocheting with Natural Fibers?

I fell in love with sheep, spinning and crochet at a very young age. Every year my parents and I made it a goal to attend a fiber festival that gloried in all things handmade and homespun. With these cherished experiences in my young memory I came to treasure craft skills just like heirlooms worthy of great value.

It became my goal to raise my own sheep, spin the yarn and crochet this handspun fiber into a finished project. Years later I have my own small flock of shetland sheep, the wool is waiting to be cleaned and processed and I now know how to spin. I can’t wait to get my crochet projects going this winter with yarn that found its start in my own backyard.

Do you enjoy crocheting with natural fiber? Do you have your own flock? Please share!

This entry was posted
on Wednesday, September 29th, 2010 at 1:19 AM by Emilee Gettle and is filed under Fun Ramblings.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

13 Comments

Oh, this post makes me so envious of spinners and so inspired as well! I have a friend who has sheep and I am wanting to learn to spin my own yarn. I have no one to teach me, but once I get a spindle, I hope to teach myself a bit (oh the charms of the internet). Thanks for posting this!

I personally don’t have any sheep or large anything to spin yarn for myself, but 2 weeks ago my best friend and her dad butchered a sheep for food and gave me the skin with a bunch of wool, the only problem was that it had so many ticks that I had to end up throwing it away-what a waste, maybe next time

I don’t own or live on a farm, but have visited a local professional spinner (near Ellwood City PA) and will be touring Highland Alpaca in Grove City PA this coming Saturday (10/9). I’d love to try working with some natural yarns. I’ve even contemplated having my cat’s lost hair/fur spun (he’s a long-hair Norwegian Forest Cat aka a Wegie), but he just hasn’t shed that much. It’s incredibly soft.

ooo that is my dream! fantasy, i guess. I’ve been a city girl practically my whole life. When I have been able to, I love to crochet with natural fibers and sew with organic fabric. It feels beautiful.

I had the pleasure of attending a silk reeling class last month. I used the same kind of spinning wheel that is used for wool. It is an involved process but the yarn is very pretty and can be used for small knitting or crochet projects and weaving projects.
I became interested in silkworms about 7 years ago. I started with a science project kit with 4 worms. I quickly found different places on line that sell silkworms in bulk. (Coastalsilkworms.com and Mulberryfarms.com are 2 of the best known). A person can start with eggs, or any sized worms. After the eggs hatch it just takes about a month for them to grow and spin their cocoons. The silkworms are easy to take care of. All they eat are Mulberry leaves or a specially prepared “Chow”. Depending on how many you have, you really don’t need much room for them.
These are called Silkworms but they are really cute, not slimy, caterpillars. More information can be found at wormspit.com.

Hi! That is really neat about the silk worms. I may have to dig into to that deeper! But, for now I have alpacas and a Llama. We have our first crop of fiber that needs to be spun. I want to get a spinning wheel and learn myself eventually But, I may get impatient and have it processed so I can start crocheting my herd’s fiber! I have Suri and Huacaya so it should be great for different kinds of projects! Anyone want to come help me spin my fiber? Thanks for hosting this topic!
God Bless and Happy Crocheting,
Nikki